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To celebrate the release of The Dragon's Lion, authors Taryn Jameson and Gabriella Bradley are giving away 2 copies each of Carnal Twil...

Review System

-Scientificalizing Our Review System

How do we scientificalise (hehe, new word!) our highly unscientific method of grading the books we read?

This blog reviews quite a mixture of genres from General Fiction to Literary to the Naughties like MM books and some MF erotic books. So yeah, we do read a lot and whatever we read, if we love it we recommend, if we hate it, we warn. Our reactions are our initial reactions during the read and after it.

That said, there is a method to our admitted madness. The stars we award depend on how much certain things affect us:

2. RELATIVITY. We like something if we feel we could actually be one of the characters or if some incident happened to us personally or to someone we know.

3. PREDICTABILITY. If we know what the ending is going to be or how the plot twists, urgh. We prefer to be surprised. However, there are some formulaic books that are just downright great reads that this method may be tossed out.

4. DEVELOPMENT. Both character and plot developments are a huge factor when we rate the books. If the development of either of these things are unsatisfying, it could drop half a star or even a whole star off the rating.

5.PULL. If we can't put the book down or better, dream of the story... oh yeah. That's our winner.

6. IT FACTOR. We read and reread a wide range of books and our favourites vary from Greek poetry and drama to Shakespearean comedies (no kidding, I and Ramona are true geeks - Elle tries to deny it but we know a secret!) to classic and modern sci-fi/fantasy, cookbooks, agriculture, survival skills, design and arts, romance (MM and MF), erotica, and history. While these are all different, they have a certain appeal (for us) that will ensure they'll be in our library fifty years from now - and we'll still be reading them.

Included in this factor are the authors themselves. We have our obvious favorites but we never close the doors for the new ones or the unfamiliar. Some of the best reads we've had are the unfamiliar and new authors who just surprise the heck out of us.

IF a book can fulfill all these for us, it gets 5 stars. We are tough critics (Ah-ah-ah-ahem!) but we also appreciate how much tougher it is to be an author who essentially place their hearts and souls out there for everyone else to see, read and take potshots at.

We do some writing ourselves but we don't have the guts these authors have to share it nor the patience they have when they go through the endless editing and re-editing just to get out that perfect book! For that, we salute the authors! Our critiques are honest and the seeming anomaly of 1 Star is honest as well.

Notes: Light and Short Read - the highest rate for these books are a 4 Stars which is an equivalent to a 5 Stars really. So don't be sad, it means a lot to us to read something short & light that leaves quite an impact. These may not necessarily be freebies, but if they are? Well, the four stars mean an absolute recommended read.